Excel cannot complete the task with available resources. Choose less data or close applications.

Anonymous

Excel cannot complete the task with available resources. Choose less data or close applications. the size of the file is 640MB with over 250k records. I have 3.25GB of memory. It takes 5 mintues for the file to open.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

I have been experiencing this problem for months (i.e., Excel cannot complete the task with available resources. Choose less data or close applications). I am running Windows 7 and Office 2010. The problem can occur with very small spreadsheets so it has nothing to do with the complexity of the spreadsheets. After reading the other posts, especially the one from Chuthor, I began to suspect incompatibilities between Excel and other MS software that I've downloaded.

Anyway, I just uninstalled Windows Live Essentials and Microsoft Outlook Social Connector for Live Messenger, which came with an update from Microsoft on 4/7/2011. This appears to have solved the problem.

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Anonymous

We eventually opened a ticket with Microsoft. Apparently this is on their radar, with no real fix just this work around. The users were experiencing this error daily, and by disabling preview pane in the 3 necessar locations completly fixed the issue. Here is the workaround MS sent me.

Windows 7 is new with Preview/Details panes. These Preview/Details panes contribute to the "Available resources" issues, as well as our "Locked for Editing by another user" issues. We consider turning them off in these 3 locations as a valid test:

Windows:

1. Right click on Start Ribbon.

2. Click Open Windows Explorer.

3. Click Organize | Layout |

4. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane.

Excel:

1. Click File | Open.

2. Click Organize | Layout |

3. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane.

Outlook:

1. Open a new e-mail.

2. In the "Include" group, click Attach File.

3. Click Organize | Layout |

4. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane.

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139 additional answers

Anonymous

2011-08-24T19:51:41+00:00

We don't use Netform X sorry, I wish that would have been the common factor. I ended up just completely rebuilding my user's machine and she has been using it for a week with no problems now. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I would still like to have an answer to this problem as I don't feel like rebuilding machines every time it happens, this is a serious pain especially for remote users.
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Anonymous

2011-08-24T20:44:07+00:00

I just did a search and found on another forum (Technet) the following fix - and dare I say it seems to have worked:

If using Windows 7, delete all files from this folder: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel

I noticed a folder with a filename of a file I was working on frequently around the time the nonsense started. Let's hope that was the fix...
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Anonymous

2011-08-24T21:09:41+00:00

I tried that also but I didn't have anything to delete. Each time this happens though and I close out of Excel it creates a file called excel12.xlb which on other forums have said to delete which I have also but the error keeps appearing. I tried the file in question on my own system and it takes longer and completely boggs down my system for a while before the same error is displayed. In my case its a workbook that has a little over 14000 rows and we are trying to delete about 100 of those. Even doing one at a time kills the program. Ideas?
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